Demand for electronic content continues to grow. Internet users continue to request video, audio, graphics, text, digital images, and many other types of content at increasing rates. Typically, when an end user wants to retrieve content from a remote location, a request is sent from the end user's computer to another computing device (e.g., content server, cache server etc.) requesting the content. In general, the manner in which the content is delivered to the end user does not vary substantially from one type of content to another, one request to another, or from one end user to another. Typically, content is sent over a path that is essentially predetermined based on sometimes inaccurate assumptions and a relatively limited view of the larger network environment. The path over which content is sent therefore may not be the best path, according to some criteria, at a given time or for a given type of content or for other considerations.
It is with respect to these and other problems that embodiments of the present invention have been created.